Webbed Feet Thunder Along in Green Valley Charity Race

Promises of special feed, a private cage and the lady duck of his dreams weren’t budging Super Duck, so Gordon Shea tried threats.

Drastic action was necessary, Shea said, because for months he had been telling residents of Green Valley, a rustic town of 1,200 in the mountains north of Saugus, that Super Duck would win the community’s biennial duck races.

On Saturday, 62 baffled ducks, Super Duck among them, were plucked, four at a time, from their pens and sent quacking along specially constructed cages in a long-awaited competition for the town’s fastest duck.

But when the starting horn blew, Super Duck wouldn’t run.

“You’re going to be duck soup, duck a l’orange, stew!” Shea, 29, screamed as he banged on top of the cage in a last-ditch effort to get the bird to move its webbed feet faster. “Do you want to be duck souffle?”

But Shea softened after Super Duck lost, and he promised to spare the bird a place on the dining room table.

Fund-Raiser

It cost Shea and other contestants $6 to enter a bird in Green Valley’s duck races. Ducks also could be rented, for $2 each, and adopted and taken home for another $2. The birds left behind after the races were to be set free at a local duck pond, race organizers said.

Proceeds from the race were to be donated to the town’s Community Club. Two years ago, the first time Green Valley held the races, the event raised about $4,500 for a senior citizens club and cautionary signs on the twisting, 17-mile road that leads to the remote town.

Marilyn De Young, president of the Community Club, said the town got the idea for the duck races from a resident who attended a similar event in New Mexico. The desert community of Pearblossom, about 70 miles north of Los Angeles, will hold duck races today.

‘Geese Are Mean’

The origin of racing ducks, better known as swimmers than as runners, is unknown, but several people at the Green Valley event said ducks were better than geese, because “geese are mean.”

Shortly before the races began at noon, Angela Afterburner, Rapid Rita, Quick Nick, Rocket Rod and other ducks were “duckorated” in costumes and paraded around the dusty field near the center of town, where the races were held.

Meanwhile, excitement mounted in the crowd of about 400 people. But the announcer cautioned overenthusiastic trainers: No ducks with steroids.

The races went smoothly until someone ran afoul of the rules and pushed Dodger Duck into the cage instead of simply releasing the duck when the horn blew. But even without the extra push, Dodger Duck won the heat the second time it was run.

When the races finally ended about 3:30 p.m., Dudley had taken third prize and won $25, Ryan took second and won $50. And the name of the duckiest, fastest duck of all?

“Duckmejian” after California’s governor.